An Excess of Phobias and Manias
Extensive Information about Fears, Anxieties, and Compulsive Behaviors Explained and Clarified!
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An Excess of Phobias and Manias
gephyromania: An irresistible fascination with bridges or an obsessive urge to cross them.
gephyrophobia: A fear of crossing a bridge or passing under one.
An example of this rare condition is illustrated in the following news item written in the October 3, 1987, issue of The Times (London) newspaper. "Bridge too Far" Stops Driver
By Thomson Prentice, Science Correspondent
Gephyrophobia—a terror of crossing bridges brought traffic to a halt for 45 minutes on the A45 yesterday.
The prospect of crossing the three-quarters of a mile long Orwell Bridge, near Ipswich, Suffolk, was too much for a middle-aged woman driver. She came to a halt in the middle of the A45 approach road and refused to budge. The woman told police that she was terrified of crossing bridges and had planned her route to avoid them, but had taken a wrong turning on her 100 mile journey from Felixstowe to London. Rush-hour traffic built up into a long tail-back while police tried to find a solution. Eventually a police officer took over the wheel of the car and the woman, whose identity was not disclosed, crouched in the back seat with her hands over her eyes during the fearful crossing. The bridge is Britain's longest single-span concrete bridge and has a drop of 150 feet. However, the woman's problem was not caused by a fear of height, but by gephyrophobia, one expert said.
not absence of fear.
-Mark Twain
gerascophobia: In older people, aging involves some situations of late life that can be distinguished from diseases and social adversities.
A fear of growing old that is based on anxieties of being left alone, of being without resources, and of being incapable of caring for oneself both physically and intellectually.
then you forget to pull your zipper up,
then you forget to pull your zipper down.
-Leo Rosenberg
Germanomania: A mania or excessive interest in things German; including language, culture, etc.
Germanophobia: A fear of Germany, its people, its culture, its language, or of German ideas.
What we fear comes to pass more
speedily than what we hope.
-Publilius Syrus, Moral Sayings
The oldest and strongest emotion
of mankind is fear.
-H.P. Lovecraft
gerontophobia: An irrational fear of old people or of growing old.
Growing old isn't so bad when
you consider the alternative.
-Maurice Chevalier, French actor
To the Old, a Fate Worse than Death
by N.R. Kleinfield, The New York Times;
as seen in the
International Herald Tribune,
November 12, 2002; pages 1 and 8:
- It happens when a woman forgets things.
- It could be a phone number. It could be an appointment.
- She might be about to introduce someone she knows very well and the name will totally elude her.
- This woman worried that she, too, like her mother who had Alzheimer's, might be consigned to a life no one wants to live.
- "If I forget something," she said, "I begin to think, ŒOh my God, do I have Alzheimer's?' That's worse than death."
- It is often assumed that death is the great bogeyman of the elderly, what they dread above all else, but now that people live much longer and have greater expectations for their old age, the complexion of their worries has changed.
- Many elderly people say that what they fear more than death and scourges like cancer is losing their minds, a debasing death of its own sort.
- One of the cruel consequences of people living longer is that dementia, particularly Alzheimer's disease, is increasingly common-place.
- Currently there is no known cure for Alzheimer's.
- "People fear this more than death, because it steals your personality and turns you into somebody what requires total care," said Alexandre Bennett, a clinical neuropsychologist who specializes in geriatrics.
- It has long been considered wise to keep your mind and body active to enjoy a healthy old age: work crossword puzzles, socialize, read.
- One man who had his own share of memory lapses, started working crossword puzzles, and his new dog forced him to go out for walks three or four times a day.
- When he returnd, he bypassed the elevator and walked up the three flights of stairs; obviously hoping that exercise would contribute to the maintenance of his mental well-being.
About the only good thing
you can say about old age is,
it's better than being dead! [Really?]
-Stephen Leacock
geumaphobia, geumatophobia, geumophobia: A fear of unfamiliar tastes or flavors.
There is a disorder known as "gustatory agnosia", in which food becomes tasteless or even has a disgusting taste. People who have this condition may also lose their ability to smell or may find that formerly pleasant odors have become offensive. With an inability to smell, such phobics may fear that they are unaware that they are eating or drinking something that formerly caused them anxieties. ghosts: See phasmophobia, pneumatophobia
gifts, presents: See doromania
gigmania: 1. An obsessive preoccupation with achieving or maintaining smug, middle-class respectability. 2. Worshipping smug respectability as the great object of life.
giraffeophobia: The fear of sticking your neck out.
-Coined by Donald E. Dossey,
Holiday Folklore, Phobias and Fun
girls: See parthenophobia, primeisodophobia
glass, crystal: See crystallophobia, hyalophobia, hyalinopygophobia, hyelophobia, nelophobia
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